Retired Justice Dahiru Saleh, the former Chief Judge of the Federal High
\nCourt who pronounced the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential
\nelection, has absolved former Military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), of
\nblame in the controversial decision.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Interview magazine, Saleh declared that IBB did not direct
\nhim to annul the election but it was his own decision adding that he had
\nno regrets cancelling the election and would repeat the judgement were it
\nbrought to him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe former president did nothing of the sort,\u201d Saleh declared, when asked
\nif IBB forced the judgment on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many cases and I cannot remember all the cases off-hand.
\nThere was the case against MKO Abiola and it was before one of my judges;
\nshe was Igbo but I can\u2019t remember her name. She started the case, then
\nfell sick and was flown out of the country for treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there was another case against him (MKO Abiola) and I had to
\ntransfer the case from the other judge\u2019s court to my court. During that
\ntime it turned that Abiola didn\u2019t even finish the case before he
\ndisappeared. Later, I learnt he had been arrested by authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Abiola wasn\u2019t happy with the case, he could have appealed it to the
\nCourt of Appeal, to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judicial system was still open but he chose not to follow it. Why no
\none followed up the annulment of the election in the higher courts is best
\nknown to members of Abiola\u2019s party at that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he, as an individual, was not interested, there must have been other
\npeople who would be interested to see the end of the story but they didn\u2019t
\nappeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were very close (referring to Abiola and IBB) and there were so many
\nassumptions regarding the relationship between the two of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the point is, in those days, the Yorubas wanted Abiola to become
\npresident; he was seen as a kind and considerate man to every Tom, Dick
\nand Harry.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, he wanted to be the president but he couldn\u2019t be. While
\nthe political blame must be on President Babangida, he (Babangida) did
\nnothing of the sort to stop him, using my court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was already Chief Judge when he was president. He came and met me there
\nand he left me there. But while he was in office, we had no personal
\nrelationship. He was my boss; I was his subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody not satisfied with what I was doing as Chief Judge could appeal
\nto the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court, simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I have no regrets, none whatever. No regrets. I would repeat the same
\nthing now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1993 presidential election, adjudged to be one of the most credible
\npolls in the country\u2019s history, saw MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic
\nParty defeating Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention,
\nalthough, the final results was not declared as the election was annulled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Retired Justice Dahiru Saleh, the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court who pronounced the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, has absolved former Military ruler, Ibrahim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n